Google says go-go-Gadget Ads

The joy of web app advertising...sob

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Google is rolling out yet another way of pumping advertising onto the web with Gadget Ads, and this time it reckons it can trick you into thinking it's real "content", whatever that is.

According to the PR bumpf: "Gadget Ads are designed to feel more like original content than a typical ad." The system openly lets developers build flexible and "rich" Flashtastic ads with audio, interactive elements, and feeds packaged together in a HTML and JavaScript web application.

Google will then splatter the melange across the Google Content Network* with no direct serving or hosting costs. Google describes Gadget Ads as "websites within websites". We're about to enter an advertising wormhole, people.

To begin with, they'll only be available to a few top-paying AdWords advertisers, but should be open to your local viagra dealer soon. A button will be available to add the campaign to your iGoogle homepage. The reason you'd want to do this is unclear.

Yahoo! has the same idea to convince people into thinking ads are interesting in their own right, as UK boss Glen Drury told us back in May.

Google's top UK sales lad Matt Brittin said: "The joy of Gadget Ads is that they are interactive and fun without being intrusive, and can be used without people having to leave the webpage they were originally on."

This is Google's second big new market push in two days after the launch of Mobile AdWords yesterday. ®

* The Register's commercial tentacle is a partner in the Google Content Network.